Special interest tourism

January 15

2010 Special interest tourism is one of the fastest growing areas within the tourism industry. It comprises a diverse group of specialist tourism activities that are distinct from the traditional mass tourism product, suggesting that tourists are beginning to demand more varied and stimulating holiday experiences. Students are introduced to various types of special interest tourism, including volunteer tourism, health tourism, adventure tourism, religious or spiritual tourism, agritourism and dark tourism. Other topics covered in this subject include the development and planning of special interest tourism, the characteristics of the special interest tourist market, and strategic marketing and management principles for building a sustainable special interest tourism product.

The term 'special interest' tourism can be misleading, because often it is used in the context of visitor interests that in reality are of wider or major (not minor or specialist) market interest.  For example, cultural and nature-based experiences (which both assume many different forms and encompass multiple niches) are highly significant and complementary market forces in their own right. They are statistically tourism's two greatest strengths and can involve substantial market volumes and frequent traveling, high spending customers.  

 By contrast bird watching is a more accurate description of special interest tourism ... a definable niche with a hard core of enthusiasts making remarkable commitments to visit places in order to observe and 'tick off' particular birds of interest - the rarer the better.

 'Special interest' tourism might also suggest a category of visitors with a single, (special) interest. A rare breed. Most people (even bird watchers) will normally have many interests ... and traveling normally offers a means to enjoy several of these at a time. These simple truths are crucial to destination development.

Nature-based tourism "Nature in tourism involves experiencing natural places, typically through outdoor activities that are sustainable in terms of their impact on the environment.".)  Nature-based tourism encompasses many leading and rapidly growing tourism subsets including - soft and hard adventure activities, beach tourism, wildlife tourism, scenic driving and sightseeing, eco-tourism, and garden tourism. Nature tourism may be crucial to the experience or may simply enhance the experience. It also includes the benefits of nature such as relaxation and enriching the spirit. Yet, it can be the most underestimated force in tourism. 

 The World Tourism Organization reports that nature based tourism is the fastest growing tourism sector. Its importance should not be ignored.  In fact, a key strategic challenge is now dealing with destination oversupply!

 Cultural tourism Cultural tourism, in its broadest and most accurate sense, concerns the way of life of a place and how this is experienced by visitors.

 It too encompasses many significant tourism subsets including - arts, science and heritage tourism, events and entertainment tourism, Indigenous tourism, food and wine tourism, and urban tourism (which also encompasses business conventions and meetings). 

 Cultural tourism, in combination with nature tourism, is commonly embraced by those many discerning people who fall within the 'non-profits in travel' sector. This sector's travel values match those of the 'untourist'.

 Issues such as authenticity and the careful retention (or judicious enhancement & development) of a distinctive local character and 'sense of place' are increasingly becoming critical to success in cultural tourism. Visitors are far more discerning and widely traveled and concerned about the growing 'sameness' of many destinations ... or how they 'could have been anywhere'. And it is not uncommon

for local residents to share the same concerns in relation to any local development trends heading in this direction!  Future tourism success is tied to NOT becoming overtly 'touristy'.

 Visitors are rarely one-dimensional in terms of their travel interests and needs ... even when commonly 'visiting a friend or relative'. By way of example, food will always be on the agenda, as will some kind of social interaction or other form of personal fun, relaxation, entertainment, sightseeing, discovery and learning.  

 Regardless of why they were initially drawn to a destination - when given the opportunity and choice - visitors will more often than not combine several of these tourism experiences (whether passive or active or both) in the one trip.  By doing so they are able to gain the richest and most enjoyable experience possible and the greatest overall benefit ... including value for money. 

 Consequently, successful destinations intelligently build the 'quality' and range of what they can offer to visitors and local residents alike ...  if they wish to remain competitive. This process also complements efforts to appeal to special niches. (For emerging destinations, the need can be to simply better market what they have ... and build later.)Even destinations whose appeal lies in their reputation for a low key lifestyle, unspoiled environment and low levels of development can still add greater depth and richness to the 'local experience' for both visitors and locals, but in a way that is very deliberately and carefully consistent with these values.

    Task 2 – Examine the range of Products and Services and Diversity of tourist types.

The travel and tourism industry is continually developing to meet changing consumer needs tastes and fashions. The characteristics of today industry reflects its dynamic nature and the uniqueness of the product and services avaialiable. Travel and tourism product and services take on many different forms, such as holidays, excursions and holidays insurance. All of these products have one thing in common-they are intangible. Image going to for a haircut. Hair is cut to the required style and length and paid to the service. Walking out of the hairdresser’s and even though have spent money, mite do not actually leave the shop with anything physical in your hand. Though enjoyed the service that has been performed for hair cut. Holiday and other travel and tourism product and services are like this. We pay to travel on an aeroplane to a chosen destination but not to pay to own and take away part of the aircraft. Staying in a hotel, sleeping in a bed for a night but at the end of stay , which is not taken the bed away. As well as being difficult to handle physically, travel and tourism products have a limited life- i.e. they are perishable. Compare a holiday to food in fridge at home. The food in the fridge has an expiry date on it and will be no god to eat after the date. With holiday, only stay at destination for a given period of time and at the end of tow-week stay in Spain, for the example, the holiday also expires and have to retrun home.

Travel and tourism product and services are also non-standardised. This means that they are all different. Condisering two different families. Both the Smith family and the Jones family stay in the same hotel, in the same resort on the island of Gran Canaria for the same week in July. However, the two families have two completely different holiday experience. The smith family are happy to lie to the pool all week soaking up in the sun. The Jones family on the other hand are much happier going on excursions to see other parts of the island, para sailing

and scuba diving. The same holiday booked does not mean that the whole experience will be the same for all involved and therefore standardised.

Unlike buying a car, holiday and travel and tourism products and services cannot be test driven or sampled by a customer before they decide to purchase. This is why travel and tourism product and services are presented in a glossy, colourful, highly appealing way in travel brochures, as this often what customers are going base their purchasing decisions on. Many holiday markers, however, do choose to visit resorts and destinations recommended by family and friends who have already experience the holiday and can advise from first-hand hnowledge. Some tour operators send travel agents on trips to resorts they wish to promote in order to acquire first-hand knowledge that they can use when selling tour operators product and services. Some tour operators are finding new ways to market and promote their products and services. For example, the promotions of Disneyland Paris and Disney World in Florida can be experienced in the comfort of your own home through videos produced by the Disney corporation to encourage people to purchase holidays to its resorts.

Tasks 3: Analyse the appeal and motivation of customers for these of package

Generally, people take part in tourist activities because they choose to. The expecption to this is business tourism where, in many cases, people have to attend conference and meetings, but even here there may be an element of choice involved. Motivational factor are aspects which give people the desire to travel and make choice about the place they wish to visit. Wanderlust is the name which has been given to people’s desire to experience different places and cultures. This may be stronger in some people than others.

Many people have a list of desitnations they would like to see and experience when they get the opportunity.some young people make a positive choice not to go into a job before they have travelled to exotic destinations such as Asia and New Zealand to experience different cultutes and environments.

For the people, the desire to travel to warmer climate where hot, sunny conditions can be guaranteed is a strong motivational factor. This sunlust is one reason why tourist s leave the UK for Meditterranean resorts each summer, because they are far more likely to have settled sunny weather in which to relax on a beach or by a hotel pool. Alternatively, people may be motivated by the need to experience different cultures and head towards museums,art galleries and sites of religious interest. Some people may wish to travel in style and be motivated to stay in quality hotels, travel first class where possible and visit destinations which have a certain up- market prestige. Example of up-market, perstigiuos destinations are St. Tropez and Monte Carlo on the Meditterranean coast. Very often tourists are motivated by the need to relax and to spend quality time with family and friends away from the normal routine of work and home life. Part of the pleasure of tourism os looking forward to the trip or holiday.

Task 4: Evaluate the management of trips and issues typical of this sector

Environmental factor can adversely affect a holiday and the whole travel market. Examples include a series of hurricanes in 2004 and the outbreak of diseases such as bird flu. Other possible problems include floods, avalanches and oil spillages.

Obviously it is difficult to plan for natural disasters, but companies should have contingency plans in place to cover all eventualities. Sometimes, tour operators have to pull out of destinations completely because of political factors such as war or terrorism. The British Foreign Office gives up-to-date information on its websites. It is important for tour operators to conduct risk assessments and have contingency plans in place for when things go wrong. Staff should be trained in crisis response. They should also have a plan for dealing with media enquiries if a disaster happens.

Ecotourism has become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the tourism industry, growing annually by 10-15% worldwide (Miller, 2007). One definition of ecotourism is “the practice of low-impact, educational, ecologically and culturally sensitive travel that benefits local communities and host countries” (Honey, 1999). Many of the ecotourism projects are not meeting these standards. Even if some of the guidelines are being executed, the local communities are still facing other negative impacts. South Africa is one of the countries that are reaping significant economic benefits from ecotourisms, but negative effects - including physical displacement of persons, gross violation of fundamental rights, and environmental hazards - far outweigh the medium-term economic benefits (Miller, 2007). A tremendous amount of money is being spent and human resources continue to be used for ecotourism despite the lack of success, and even more money is put into public relation campaigns to dilute the effects of criticism. Ecotourism channels resources away from other projects that could contribute more sustainable and realistic solutions to pressing social and environmental problems. “The money tourism can generate often ties parks and managements to eco-tourism” (Walpole et al. 2001). But there is a tension in this relationship because eco-tourism often causes conflict and changes in land-use rights, fails to deliver promises of community-level benefits, damages environments, and has plenty of other social impacts. Indeed many argue repeatedly that eco-tourism is neither ecologically nor socially beneficial, yet it persists as a strategy for conservation and development (West, 2006). While several studies are being done on ways to improve the ecotourism structure, these examples provide rationale for stopping it altogether.

The ecotourism system exercises tremendous financial and political influence. The evidence above shows that at the very least a strong case exists for restraining such activities. Funding could be used for field studies aimed at finding alternative solutions to tourism and the diverse problems Africa faces in result of urbanization, industrialization, and over exploitation of agriculture (Kamuaro, 2007). At the local level ecotourism has become a source of conflict over control of land, resources, and tourism profits. There are many problems with the idea of ecotourism. Environmental, the effects on the local people, and conflicts over profit distribution are only a few of the negative effects of ecotourism. In a perfect world more efforts would be made towards educating tourists of the environmental and social effects of their travels. Very few regulations or laws stand in place as boundaries for the investors in ecotourism. These should be implemented to prohibit the promotion of unsustainable ecotourism projects and materials which project false images of destinations, demeaning local and indigenous cultures.